Chapter 28
“An unexpected change”
Everything was darkness.
No matter which way she looked, everything around her was just a huge black stain that seemed to devour everything except for her own silhouette, covered by a thin veil of shadows. Kalysto tried to take a step forward, but nothing changed. The ground beneath her seemed to be made of pure cotton and she could almost swear she was walking on air.
As she moved deeper into that inexhaustible darkness, Kalysto felt the pressure against her lungs and chest increase. The palms of her hands began to sweat and the air became more and more charged with something she could not decipher, but it was getting harder and harder to breathe.
“Hello?” she whispered into nothingness and waited anxiously, her heart pounding hard against her ribs for the answer of something, anything, that could help her out of this pressing darkness.
<
But Kalysto recognized it immediately. That was the same voice that had helped her with the goblins.
The same voice that sometimes ruled her nightmares.
<<...Someone is watching us...>>
****
Royal palace of the kingdom of Balsac.
“Your highness, I regret to inform you that of the seventy heroes summoned only seventeen survived, and not all of them achieved the heroic class,” reported Marquis Milo de Riva, first court magician of the kingdom of Balsac, with his left knee on the cold marble floor, his right hand on his chest and his gaze on the ground. As tradition dictated.
The throne room was almost empty. A pair of guards guarded the door from outside and two others from inside, while the king of the small kingdom of Balsac received the report. Marquis Milo of Riva was lying prostrate in front of the king, and next to him was the mage sent by the tower of mages, next to the delicate figure of the high priestess of the temple of light, who was doing her best to hide the uncertainty stamped on her face, keeping her head down.
Standing beside the king’s chair was his advisor, the Marquis of Allfel, his grizzled beard neatly trimmed and without a single wrinkle in his impeccable navy blue suit. With his cold gray eyes fixed on Darla, as if she were nothing more than an insect he wished to crush.
At the same time, Darla bit her lip as she tried to think of a way to get immune from the predicament she found herself in. But no matter how hard she tried to think of a scenario that would be beneficial to her, her mind remained blank.
“What?” King Medhas shouted, filled with indignation. His fist firmly clenched against the wooden arm of his throne. “Are you telling me that after all the effort and planning we did, the operation was a failure?” he growled. His pale face disfiguring and accentuating the wrinkles that accompanied his black eyes.
“ ...Something like that, your majesty. Besides, two of them have no class at all. And there’s one whose system we can’t even decipher. We’re still waiting for her to wake up to check if the blow she received to the head affected her system.”
“How can such a thing be possible?” growled the king.
“The young woman was badly injured when we found her. A temple priestess insisted on checking her over, even after one of the court healers cured her,” Riva added, casting a distrustful glance at Darla. “Though such a thing was not necessary.”
“And why would the temple believe it has any kind of authority over my heroes?” the king demanded.
“ ...My lord...eh....” the priestess’ voice trembled.
“Darla, by what authority does the temple interfere in my affairs when they were only supposed to assist the mages of my court and the mages of the tower during the summoning ritual?”
“But my lord, the first prophecy says that...!” protested the woman, raising her head and fixing her gaze directly on the king’s.
“Watch your tongue child, we are not alone!” He interrupted her. Everyone’s gaze fell on the wizard sent by the tower, who tried to hide his sudden nervousness as he wished he could be invisible and go unnoticed. “What is the tower doing right now to solve this problem?”
“The Master of the tower has left in search of the dragon that came out of the summoning ritual, along with a group of our best mages, but we haven’t heard from them yet.”
“As soon as you do, inform me of the situation. You are dismissed.”
“Thank you, your majesty,” replied the mage, but then he seemed to hesitate.
“Is something wrong?”
“ We found skeletons fighting alongside two of those creatures that came along with the heroes. We’re sure that at least one of them is a necromancer.”
“What? Then dispatch a group of your best mages right now to subjugate them! I don’t want a necromancer in my kingdom!”
“... “ Again the mage hesitated.
“What now?” growled the king.
“After his majesty raised taxes on all those who brewed and traded potions, and brought out the law limiting the goods that can be imported and exported from the kingdom and increased audits on merchants, most of the mages in the tower left for other kingdoms.” Where they could create potions without restrictions, he wanted to add. Those of us who are left now are mostly just simple mages engaged in research. The Master already took with him those who could fight. So I’m afraid we don’t have the resources to do what his majesty asks of us,” he would have liked to add that everyone in the tower was aware that all those changes the king had made were only to take away their monopoly on potions, since until two years ago they were the only ones who made them. Instead, now all the potions that were available on the market were produced by the wizards working directly for the crown. “Also, according to the treaty between the first Tower Master and King Alexander II, only the Tower Master has authority over the tower, or the mages affiliated with it. So I must wait for the Master’s approval before I can carry out your order.”
Stolen story; please report.
“You dare to question my authority?” the king demanded.
“No, your majesty. I am only a simple messenger following orders.”
The king’s face distorted in anger and a ball of fire shot out of his hand, smashing into the unsuspecting wizard’s face and burning half of his face. The wizard’s screams flooded the throne room until the messenger began to use his own water magic to put out the fire and very slowly heal his wounds.
- Get him out of my sight! -The king ordered the guards with a gentle wave of his hand. And the two knights who were guarding the door hurried to follow his orders.
“That was not wise, my lord,” intervened the Marquis of Allfel, advisor and right-hand man of the king. “To be at odds with the wizards of the tower would not be a wise move right now.”
“I don’t give a shit! I’m the fucking king of this kingdom and if I tell them to jump, those stupid mages in the tower should be grateful to do so!” Refuted the king, “It’s all gone to shit!” He growled, slamming his fist on the wooden arm of his royal seat. “And now not only do I have to worry about a dragon, something that hasn’t been seen in hundreds of years, but also a fucking necromancer and the delicate ego of the tower wizards?” He turned to the Marquis of Allfel. “Are you joking with me, old friend?”
“Of course not, your majesty. But as an old friend, I remind you that it is not a good time to look for more enemies than we already have, and much less after what happened with the Duke of Lanish” despite his forty-five years, the king wanted to hide his face with his hands for a moment when he heard his words. He knew well what his friend and mentor was referring to. He had warned him several times about how dangerous it would be to be seduced by the beauty and sweet words of the priestess Darla, but he had not listened to him. And with her gaining power within the temple, it seemed to him that the two of them could form more than just a good alliance.
But now he was beginning to see the error in that decision.
“Milo, please tell me at least that the heroes are useful,” he commented, looking at the head mage of the court.
“They’re just a bunch of mostly uncoordinated kids, your majesty. We’ll have to train them from scratch. The only one who looked somewhat promising is the same young lady whose system is broken. And she’s just a simple archer.”
“And on top of that, we got a bunch of useless ones,” lamented the king with a weary sigh, as he began to feel a pounding headache bursting behind his eyes. Then he turned to the priestess, “You promised me my own army of heroes if I would advance the summoning and provide you with enough mana to perform the ritual, and look at what you’ve done!”
“Your majesty, never before has such a thing happened. And never in the history of the entire continent has there been a record of not being able to read a hero’s stats. Maybe she’s the one the prophecy warned us about!” The priestess tried to defend herself.
“Stop this nonsense, Darla! We are not the only ones who performed a hero summoning. You can’t be sure those who the prophecy was talking about are among those we summoned and not the other kingdoms!”
“But still we should thoroughly review this situation. It is too much of a coincidence and we should take risks,” she hastened to add.
“It is not safe for the kingdom to act under the assumptions of a simple priestess,” Allfel interrupted her.
“I am the...” this time it was the court magician who interrupted her.
“Of the seventeen remaining heroes, four of them follow the archer. If we do something openly against her, they could rebel against us and, if we are not careful, the others could take that opportunity to join the rebellion as well. And this group of heroes, unlike those of the past, do not seem very willing to collaborate with our cause.”
- They are summoned heroes!“ said the king in annoyance. “They should be proud to serve our kingdom and give their lives for it!”
“However, they seem to think the opposite, your majesty. The most appropriate thing for the moment to get what we want from them would be to grant them certain apparent benefits while they let their guard down, and we can find a satisfactory way to completely subdue them and get them on our side.”
“Then it is better to separate them all now and avoid a riot. A couple of days in prison without food and water will help remind them that they are no longer in their world and that they depend on us to survive,” concluded the king, Allfel and Riva looked at each other sideways not in agreement with the king’s words, but both remained silent, deciding by mutual agreement that they would talk to him separately later to smooth the situation over. “And you!” he pointed his finger at Darla, “From now on the temple is forbidden to have any kind of contact with any of the heroes! I don’t want to hear anything about prophecies again. You’ve brought enough trouble on all of us! If you hadn’t pressured me to bring the summoning forward, none of this would be happening! And now I have an enemy kingdom I must protect myself from, monsters knocking at my door, fewer heroes than you had promised me and a fucking dragon endangering my kingdom, not to mention a possible necromancer lurking! You’d better call all the knights of the temple and sort this out as soon as possible!”
“But your majesty...” Darla tried to defend herself.
“That a mere priestess should have so much power over the king should not be possible” Darla’s voice was silenced by the arrival of Queen Tathiana of Balsac. Her cold gray gaze, laden with contempt, rested first on the priestess and then on the king as she advanced into the audience chamber and, with the confidence of a queen, sat down on her throne. Immediately, both Riva and Allfel bowed to her.
“Your majesty. Marquis Milo de Riva salutes her majesty, the moon of the kingdom of Balsac. May the gods light your path.”
“Marquis Vellan of Allfel salutes her majesty, the moon of the kingdom of Balsac. May the gods light your path.”
“I thank you for your good wishes. And I hope that the gods illuminate your paths,” she commented, giving them both a kindly glance. “First of all, I apologize for my tardiness. On my way here, I stopped by the infirmary to meet the heroes. Imagine my surprise when I found the place in chaos. Apparently, someone in the temple decided it was wise to attack the mind of one of the heroes, who immediately realized what was happening and accused the priestess. Imagine everyone’s surprise when we found out about this.” The softness in her voice did not fool anyone present. “So I would like to know priestess, who was so foolish as to order such stupidity without the authorization of the royal family, causing the rest of the heroes to see us now as enemies?” Her voice grew colder and colder. And although Darla looked at the king for help, he only looked at her silently, full of annoyance.
“Your majesty...you see...uh,” the priestess’ voice broke and a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. It was one thing to confront the king and quite another to confront the queen, who was said to be as cold as the snow in the high mountains of the north.
“I asked a simple question that only requires a simple answer. But I see that the temple priests are not even capable of providing such a thing, though I can get an idea of who is responsible” Darla could swear that the temperature in the room dropped a couple of degrees as the queen spoke.
The king, on the other hand, filled with helplessness, clenched his fists. His gaze was filled with contempt for Tathiana, knowing full well that she was taking advantage of the opportunity the other temple priestess had given her to humiliate Darla, his current mistress. But even if he was the king, he could do nothing openly against the queen. Not when it was her powerful family who were the guardians of the north and kept invaders and barbarians out of the kingdom, plus they were the ones who kept the rebels at bay.
“I suggest that since it was someone from the temple who got us into this mess, it is precisely them who will take care of solving the problem with the dragon and the rest of the monsters that came with the failed summoning. Besides imposing an appropriate punishment for attacking one of the heroes without the authorization of the royal family, don’t you think so, your majesty?” Tathiana looked at her husband, her open fan hiding the smirk that shone on her face while those words escaped her lips. “Perhaps a couple of weeks in the palace prison will remind them that the temple is not above the crown.”